as he makes very ancient Joseph Scaliger de emendat Temp. 1.7 cujus cultus institutio vetustissima est as his own words are grounding the same upon the reading of the Law in the time of Ezra So I conceive their form of worship on the same was no less ancient than those times For whereas Ezra is confessed by those who approve not Liturgies to be the Author of those 18 Benedictions Smectymn Vindicat. p. 26. so much in Use amongst the Jews of the second Temple some of those Benedictions seem to me to be composed for the Meridian of this feast though they might elso serve at other times as occasion was Of which take this as most agreeable to the intention of the festival Cited by H. Thorndike c. 10 of his Religious Assembl Blessed art thou O Lord our God the King of the world that hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and given us command concerning the matters of the Law And sweeten O Lord the words of the Law in our mouths and in the mouth of thy people the house of Israel and make us all and our Children and our Childrens Children knowers of thy Name and learners of thy Law for it self Blessed art thou O Lord which teachest thy people Israel the Law So far the very words of the Benediction a Benediction made by the self same Author who as it is conceived by Scaliger did ordain the Festival The like Authority was exercised by the Jewish Church in Instituting set and appointed Fasts for the chastising of the body and the afflicting of the soul that so Gods worship might go forward with the greater fervour Of these we find some mentioned in the Prophecy of the Prophet Zachary as viz. the Fasts of the fifth and seventh moneth cap. vii v. 5. The Fasts of the fourth and tenth moneths cap. viii v. 19. The several occasions of the which you may see elsewhere Besides which Annual Fasts they used to fast upon the Monday and the Thursday Jejuno his in Sabbato said the Vain-glorious Pharisee in S. Lukes Gospel and many times they did impose upon themselves a seven days Fast the better to profess their sorrow and bewail their sins Luk. 18.12 For which consult 1 Sam. xxxi 13. 1 Chron. x. 12. 2 Esdras v. 13 20. And we have reason to believe that there were certain and determinate forms of publick worship for all the residue because we find them on those last What was the course observed in reading of the Law upon the second and fifth days of the week we have seen before and shall add only this at present that they Assembled in those days in their several Synagogues not only in the greater Towns but the smaller Villages Maimon in Megillah c. 1. n. 6. ap H. Thorndike as the Rabbins tell us But for the seven days Fast the form and order of the same according as it was performed by those which dwelt in Hierusalem was this as followeth When they prayed after this order in Hierusalem they went into the Mountain of the Temple against the East gate And when the Apostle of the Congregation the same who in S. Luke is called the Minister cap. iv 20. was come unto the prayer which began with this He that heard Abraham c. and ended with these words viz. Blessed be thou O Lord God our God the God of Israel from generation to generation The People answered Blessed be the name of his glorious Kingdom to all generations and for evermore Then said the Officer of the Synagogue unto the Priests which blew the Trumpets Sound ye the Sons of Aaron sound and then prayed again And though it seemeth by the Rabbin Id. in Tanaioth c. 4. n. 14. cited by Mr. Thorndike cap. of his Religious Assemblies c. that this prescribed form was fitted only to the Meridian of Hierusalem yet there is little question to be made but that it served also for all the Synagogues about Judaea there being no imaginable reason why a prescript form of publick worship conceive me in the moral parts thereof which was observed in the Temple should not be used in the Synagogues which in performance of Gods service was to take pattern from the Temple Only some difference there was in the present case but such a difference as is a matter of meer nicety not of any moment For when this form was used in the Synagogue the People answered Amen at the end of the Prayer But when they used it in the Mountain of the Temple that is within the outmost compass of it their Answer was Blessed be the name of his glorious Kingdom c. as before was said it being not usual with the People as the Rabbins note cited ibid. c. 7. to answer Amen within the Mountain of the Temple So punctual were they in their forms as not to vary in a word or title from that which was prescribed in their publick Liturgies And finally that they had a prescribed form of words for their solemn and occasional Feasts is evident by that of Abel cap. ii 17. where the words occur But to look back upon the Celebration of the daily Sacrifices besides the testimonies of the Rabbins and that of the Samaritan Chronicle produced before we have it thus described by Jesus the Son of Syrac an Author of unquestionable credit to the point in hand Speaking of Simon the Son of Onias who was the High Priest at the time and his officiating at the Altar he proceeds as followeth Ecclus. 50.14 And finishing the Service at the Altar that he might adorn the Offering of the most high Almighty he stretched out his hand to the Cup wherewith the Drink-offering was to be made and poured of the blood of the Grape he poured out at the foot of the Altar a sweet smelling savour unto the most high King of all Then shouted the Sons of Aaron and sounded the silver Trumpets and made a great noise to be heard for a remembrance before the most High Then all the People hasted together and fell down to the Earth upon their faces towards the Lord God Almighty the most High The Singers also sung praises with their voices with great variety of sounds was there made sweet melody And the People besought the Lord most High by prayer before him that is merciful till the Solemnity of the Lord was ended and they had finished his Service Then went he down and lifted up his hands over the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel to give the blessing of the Lord with his lips and to rejoyce in his Name And they bowed themselves down to worship the second time that they might receive a blessing from the most High So far the Author of Ecclesiasticus who lived in the latter end of Ptolemy Euergetes King of Egypt as himself tells us in his Preface Now in these words of his if we mark them well we find particularly all the parts
them which is the moral part thereof A thing which God might please to leave unto the wisdom of his Church and the Rulers of it in that being moral duties and so by consequence imprinted in the minds of men by the stamp of nature there needed not so punctual and precise a prescription of them as of the outward ceremonies which were meerly legal Now that there were set forms of Prayers and Praises used in the celebratien of these legal Sacrifices even from the very times of Moses appeareth by a memorable passage in an old Samaritan Chronicle belonging once unto the Library of Joseph Scaliger now in the custody of the Learned Primate of Armagh In which Book after relation of the death of Adrian the Emperour whom the Jews curse with Conterat Deus ossa ejus as certainly he was a deadly enemy of theirs it followeth thus Quo tempore abstulit librum optimum qui penes illos fuit Clted by the L. B. of Exeter now B. of Norwich in his Answer to the Vindication jam inde à diebus illis tranquillis pacificis qui continebat cantiones preces sacrificiis praemissas Singulis enim Sacrificiis singulas praemiserunt cantiones jam tum diebus pacis usitatas quae omnia acourato conscripta in singulas transmissa subsequentes generationes à tempore Legati Mosis sc ad hunc usque diem per ministerium Pontificum Maximorum These are the words at large as I find them cited the substance of the which is this That after the decease of Adrian the High Priest then being took away that most excellent Book which had been kept amongst them ever since the calm and peaceable times of the Israelites which contained those Songs and Prayers which were ever used before their Sacrifices there being before every several Sacrifice some several Song or Hymn still used in those times of peace all which being accurately written had been transmitted to the subsequent generations from the time of Moses the Legat or Ambassador of God to that very time by the Ministry of the High Priests of the Jewish Nation A book to which the Chronicle aforesaid gives this ample testimony Eo libro historia nulla praeter Pentateuchum Mosis antiquior invenitur that there was not to be found a more antient piece except the Pentateuch of Moses And though some men no friends to Liturgy out of a mind and purpose to disgrace the evidence have told us that the most contained in the aforesaid book Smectymn Vindicat. p. 24. were only divine Hymns wherein there was always something of Prayer In saying so they have given up their verdict for us and confirmed our evidence For if there were set Hymns or Songs premised before every Sacrifice and if that every Hymn had somewhat in it of a Prayer there must be then set forms of Hymns and Prayers used at every Sacrifice which was the matter to be proved and by them denied But to descend unto particulars there was a Song composed and sung by Moses Exod. 15. on the defeat of Pharoah and the host of Egypt which is still extant in Gods book A song sung Quire-wise as it seemeth Moses as Chanter in that holy Anthem singing verse by verse and Mary the Prophetess Aaron's Sister and all the residue of the Women with Instruments of Musick in their hands saying or singing at each verses end CANTATE DOMINO Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the Sea vers 21. Aynsworth doth so conceive it in his Notes on Exodus and Lyra on the place differs little from it Egressae sunt mulieres quibus Maria praecinebat sec quod oportebat fieri aliae respondebant sicut solet fieri in tympanis choris eodem modo fecit Moyses respecu virorum Cajetan though he differ from them both in the manner of it yet he agrees upon the matter that this Hymn or Anthem was sung Quire-wise or alternatim it being his opinion that the Women singing some spiritual song to the praise of God Cajetan in Exod. c. 15.21 Mary to every verse made answer CANTATE DOMINO Innuitur saith he quod tot choris mulierum tanquam ex una parte canentibus aliquid in divinam laudem Maria sola tanquam ex altera parte canebat initium supra scripti Cantici that viz. which was sung by Moses But whatsoever manner there was used in the singing of it it seems the Jews did afterwards make Use thereof in their publick Liturgy For thus saith Hooker in his Book of Ecclesiastical Polity Hook Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. n. 26. That very Hymn of Moses whereof now we speak grew afterwards to be a part of the ordinary Jewish Liturgie and not that only but sundry others since invented their Books of Common prayer containing partly Hymns taken out of the holy Scriptures partly Thanksgivings Benedictions and Supplications penned by such as were from time to time the Governors of that Synagogue All which were sorted into several times and places some to begin the Service of God withal and some to end some to go before and some to follow after and some to be interlaced between the divine readings of the Law and Prophets Nor is there any thing more probable than that unto their custom of finishing the Passeover with certain Psalms the holy Evangelist doth evidently allude saying That after the Cup delivered by our Saviour unto his Apostles they sung and so went forth to the Mount of Olives What ground that eminent and learned man had for the first part of his Assertion viz That the song of Moses grew afterwards to be a part of the Jewish Liturgy although he hath not pleased to let us know yet I am confident he had good ground for what he said But for the latter part thereof that the Evangelist doth allude unto certain Psalms used at the finishing of the Jewish Passeover I think there is not any thing more clear and evident For proof whereof and that we may the better see with what set form of Prayers and Praises the Passeover was celebrated by the Jews of old Joseph Scalig. de emend Temp. 1.6 we will make bold to use the words of Joseph Scaliger who describes it thus All things being readily prepared and the guests assembled Offam azymam in Embamma intingebat Paterfamilias c. The Father of the Family or Master of the House dipped the unleavened bread into the sawce which was forthwith eaten Another part thereof being carefully reserved under a napkin was broke into as many pieces as there were several guests in the Paschal Chamber each piece being of the bigness of an Olive and each delivered severally to the guests as they sate in order That done he takes the Cup and having drank thereof gives it to the next he to a second and so in order to the rest till they all had
one pronounced the blessing word by word till the three verses were ended And the people answered not after every verse but they made it in the Sanctuary one blessing And when they had finished all the people answered Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel for ever and ever Id. Ibid. By which we may preceive most clearly first that the Priests were tyed precisely to a form of blessing prescribed by the Lord himself And secondly that to this form of blessing thus prescribed by God the Church did after add of her own Authority not only several external and significant rites but a whole clause to be subjoyned by the people after the Priest had done his part Now as the Priests were limited by Almighty God unto a set and prescribed form wherewith they were to bless the people in the Name of God So did he also set a form unto the People in which they were to pay their Tithes and First-fruits to the Lord their God towards the maintenance of the Priests First for the form used at the oblation of the First-fruits it was this that followeth the words being spoke unto the Priest I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the Countrey which the Lord sware unto our Fathers to give us Which said and the Oblation being placed by the Priest before the Altar the party which brought it was to say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous And the Egyptians evil intreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage And when we cryed unto the Lord God of our Fathers the Lord beard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labour and our oppression And the Lord brought us forth of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an out-stretched arm and with great terribleness and with signs and with wonders And he hath brought us into this place and hath given us this Land even a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey And now behold I have brought the First-fruits of the Land which thou O Lord hast given unto me Then for the tendry of the Tithe of the third year which only was payable to the Priest those of the other two years being due to the Levites in the Countrey it was to be brought unto Hierusalem and tendred in these following words viz. I have brought away the hallowed thing out of mine House and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the Stranger to the Fatherless and to the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my journeying neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead but I have bearkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest to our Fathers a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey Of this see Deut. 26. from the 1 verse to the 16. Led by these precedents and guided by the Wisdom of the Spirit of God the Church in the succeeding times prescribed a set form to be used in burning their leaven which after they had searched for with such care and diligence that a Mouse-hole was not left unransacked they threw it in the fire with this solemn form of execration viz. Let all that Leaven or whatsoever leavened thing is in my power whether it were seen of me or not seen whether cleansed by me or not cleansed let all that be scattered destroyed and accounted of as the dust of the Earth A prescribed form they also had in a constant practice for the confession of their sins to the Throne of God The ground thereof they took indeed from the holy Scripture where the Lord God commanded saying And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their Transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the Goat c. Lev. 16.21 Ask Lyra what kind of Confession is there meant and he will tell you that it was a general Confession of the peoples sins made by the mouth of the Priest for and in their names sicut facimus in Confessione in principio Missae as we the Priests are wont to make in the beginning of the Mass The Learned Morney comes more home and informs us thus Lyr. in Levit. cap. 18.21 Confessio olim in sacrificio solennis Ejus praeterquam in lege vestigia in Prophetis formulam habemus In ipsis Judaeorum libris verba tanquam concepta extant quae sacerdos pronunciare solitus Of old they had a solemn or set manner of Confession Mornaeus de Missal 1. cap. 5. whereof besides those footsteps of it which are remaining in the Law the form is extant in the Prophets And in the Jewish Liturgy the express words are to be seen which were pronounced by the Priest Now if we ask of Paulus Phagius than whom none more acquainted with the Jewish Liturgies what the precise form was which the Priest did use he will thus inform us Forma confessionis qua tum usus est summus Pontifex secundum Hebraeorum relationem haec fuit c. The form saith he used then by the High Priest in Confessing the peoples sins as the Hebrew Doctors have recorded was as followeth P. Phagius in Chaldaea Paraphr in cap. 16. Levit. O Lord thy People of the House of Israel have sinned they have done wickedly they have grievously transgressed before thee O Lord make Atonement now for the Sins and for the Iniquities and for the Trespasses that thy People the House of Israel have sinned and unrighteously done and trespassed before thee as it is written in the Law of Moses thy Servant that in this day he shall make Atonement for you This for the people on the Scape-goat And there were two other Confessions made by the Priest also as the Rabbins testifie one for himself Maymoni apud Aynsw in cap. 16. Levit. the other for himself with the other Priests both on the Bullock of the Sin-offering mentioned v. 6. each of which also had their certain and prescribed forms For when he offered the Bullock for a Sin-offering for himself he said O Lord I have sinned and done wickedly and have grievously transgressed I beseech thee now O Lord be merciful unto those sins and iniquities and grievous transgressions wherein I have sinned P. Phagius loco supr citato done wickedly and transgressed against thee And when he offered for himself and the rest of the Priests then he used these words saying
to whom shall we go thou hast the words of life eternal The number of his followers being thus increased he sends them not immediately to preach his Gospel Two years he trained them up in the School of Piety where he himself was both the Teacher and the Lesson before he ventured them abroad upon that employment And when he ventured them abroad he neither sent them all together Luke 6.13 nor with like authority Twelve he selected from the rest whom he named Apostles Mark 3.14 And he ordained them saith Saint Mark that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach first to be with him as the constant witnesses of his words and works and afterwards to preach and publish what they saw and heard De Praescript advers haeret In which regard Tertullian calls them not unfitly Legatos à latere sent from Christ to teach the Nations Ex quibus out of his Disciples duodecem praecipuos lateri suo adlegerat destinatos nationibus Magistros as his own words are The same Tertullian gives a reason why Christ made choice of twelve Apostles neither more nor less Contra Marcian l. 4. viz. because there were twelve Fountains in Elim twelve gems or pretious Stones in the Brest-plate of Aaron and twelve stones taken out of Jordan by the hand of Joshua and by him put into the Ark of the Testament And then he adds totidem enim Apostoli praetendebantur that the like number of Apostles was prefigured Other conceits there are of the Ancient Fathers about this number Bede and Sedulius resemble them to the twelve signs of the Zodiack Justin Martyr to the twelve Bells in the high Priests garment Tertullian before named In John 6. Sedulius Dialog cum Tryphone Loco supra citato to the twelve Oxen that did uphold the molten Sea in the Temple of Solomon Others have other fancies to the same effect but whether Christ related unto any of them in this designation as it is no where to be found so is it not material to the present purpose More near unto the point in my opinion is that of Calvin who thinks our Saviour in the choice of his twelve Disciples related to the twelve Patriarchs of the Tribes of Israel to shew that as the Patriarchs were the root and seminary of the Tribes of Israel so the Apostles were to be the Parents or if you will Calvin in Harm Evang. the Patriarchs of the Church of Christ Non ergo frustra Dominus duodecim veluti Patriarchas constituens Ecclesiae renunciationem testatus est Which guess of his though it come nearer to the matter than the other did yet it falls short also of the true intention of our Lord and Saviour For Christ who was best able to assign the reason of his mind herein hath told us that he fitted his Apostles according to the number of the Tribes of Israel that his Apostles in due time might become their Judges For so himself declares it in his holy Gospel Verily saith he I say unto you Matth. 19.28 that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Hieron in locum i. e. as Hierom doth expound it Quia credentibus vobis illi credere noluerunt by reason of their obstinacy and unbelief not giving credit to that Gospel the Apostles preached Twelve then our Saviour pleased to chuse whom he named Apostles and they themselves conceived this number not to want its weight and therefore made it their first care to fill up their number and surrogate some other in the place of Judas Saint Peter very well declared the necessity of it when he came in with his Oportet Acts 1.21 22. Oportet ergo ex his viris c. Wherefore of these men that have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection So excellently true is that of Austin Adeo numerus ille sacratus est August in Psal 103. ut in locum unius qui exciderat non posset nisi alter nominari As for the name quos Apostolos nominavit as Saint Luke informs us Baronius thinks it was not of our Saviours own divising Luke 6.13 but by him borrowed of the high Priests of the Jewish Nation who had a special kind of Ministers whom they called Apostles imployed by them for the instruction of the Priests Quos etiam ipse legare consueverat ad componendos optimos Sacerdotum mores ipsas Synagogas inspiciendas pravos mores corrigendos c. Annal. A. 32. ss 5. Epiphan haeres 30. n. 5. Quos haec appellatio missos interpretatur Tert. de proscript In Epist ad Gal. c. 2. the visiting of the several Synagogues the rectifying of ill manners and the reforming of those publick Ministers who did not live according to the prescript of the Law Whether that it were so or not or that the Cardinal be not mistaken in the meaning of the Author whom he citeth I will not meddle for the present though I conceive by looking on the place in Epiphanius that the succeeding Patriarchs of the Jewish Nation did rather take this name from Christs Apostles than he from theirs But for the word as now we use it it is meerly Greek signifying in its natural and original sense a Messenger a Legate an Embassadour from whom to whomsoever sent after appropriated and applyed by the Evangelists to signifie those twelve whom our Saviour chose and called his Apostles as by way of excellence yet so that many of those men who saw our Saviour in the flesh and did preach the Gospel are sometimes honoured with that name Quod autem exceptis duodecim quidam vocantur Apostoli illud in causa est omnes qui Dominum viderunt eum postea praedicarunt fuisse Apostolos nominatos as Saint Hierom notes it By which we see that those two things did principally concur unto the making of an Apostle viz. to have been conversant with our Saviour Christ and to preach his Word which being most exactly verified in those twelve Disciples whom he selected for that purpose it was most fit that they should chiefly have the honour of so high a Title But these although they were two special marks of an Apostle yet they were not all Others had seen our Saviour in the flesh and preached his Gospe which notwithstanding never durst assume that Title Ignatius who affirms it of himself Ignat. Epist ad Smyrnem that he had seen the Lord Jesus doth yet disclaim the power and priviledg of an Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he in his Epistle to the Romans So that besides their seeing of our Saviour in the flesh and preaching of those things which